Packing for a road trip is different than packing for a flight. Especially when you’re taking a dog with you. I may have overpacked slightly, but in the car that’s not really a problem. I’m much less conservative in the car.

Things I’m really glad I took:

• All of Georgia’s collars and harnesses. We have a rather complex system of containment for Georgia. When she’s in the house, we use a regular collar with her tags on it. When she and I walk in the mornings, I add an Easy Walk harness. But the Easy Wak harness doesn’t work for running. It rubs her wrong. For our runs, we put on a Martingale collar and take off the regular collar. We also add a training collar with a remote, because just having it on makes her easier to control, and when we’re running we really need her not to cut us off to bark at another dog. So that was a lot, but all of it was needed.
• Lots and lots and lots of sunscreen. It was hot. And as I noted in previous posts, we chose almost exclusively outdoor activities to try to reduce our COVID exposure. So we were outside a LOT. We took bottles and tubes and cans of sunscreen. We applied and reapplied. And we still were pink most nights.
• Face masks. I’m now viewing face masks like underwear or socks. Put on a new one every day, and wash between wearings! Unfortunately, we don’t have enough masks yet to do that. But I took what we had, and many of them were washed during the week.
• Speaking of washing items, the AirBnB had a washer and dryer, so I took these amazing travel laundry sheets. I read about them before our cruise last year, and I am a fan. There was laundry detergent at the house, but it was super flowery-scented, and I’ve been using fragrance-free laundry soap since college. So it was great to have another option. They’re inexpensive, light, and easy to pack, and they seem to last a really long time too.
• Gallon plastic bags. For whatever reason, I grabbed a box of gallon storage bags and threw it in the van while I was packing. It wasn’t on my list. And we used those things all the time. Someone has a headache? Ice in a storage bag. Leftover Mexican food the first night and no storage containers? Throw ‘em in a storage bag. There were a lot of other situations, too. I was really glad to have them!

Things I wish I had packed

I did really well with personal clothing/toiletries and things for the dog. I didn’t do so well with food and kitchen items.

• Our Nespresso machine! When we were in Europe we became familiar with the Nespresso line, and a year or so ago we bought one. They’re so small, and we had the car, so we thought about taking ours. But the AirBnB had a coffee maker and coffee, so we decided against. Big mistake. Coffee snobs should not count on drinking whatever’s available. Next time I’ll take the Nespresso machine.
• Our blender. Again, the AirBnB had a blender. But we have a really nice blender. And the one at the AirBnB couldn’t really handle whole frozen strawberries, which are pretty standard in the girls’ smoothies. I ended up throwing out a bunch of frozen strawberries at the end of the week. Ugh.
• More swimsuits. But to do that I’d need to own more swimsuits. And I just can’t find ones that I like that aren’t outrageously priced. Boo.

Things I wish I hadn’t packed

• Our MacBook. Before the trip, I imagined myself sitting on the pool deck editing pictures and creating photo albums while the girls swam. That did NOT happen. Instead, I either (1) was swimming, too, because it was so darn hot; (2) was blogging; (3) was doing meal prep; or (4) was planning our next day’s activities. I probably used the MacBook thirty minutes the entire week.
• A hardback book. I also imagined myself reading by the pool, which simply didn’t happen. Plus I had an e-book with me. Why pack another? It seemed like a good idea at the time!

All in all it was a pretty good packing job. But there’s always room to do better next time!